The Reason for the Season
by Fyrloche
Summary: Inuyasha comes to Kagome's time on Christmas Eve and meets someone who tells him an interesting story.


The Reason for the Season

**A/N: This idea came to me. Everyone writes about Christmas in the commercial sense, with Santa, but I have yet to read one from the religous side, so I decided to do one. This is not meant to be preachy and I hope none take offense at this fic. I don't own Inuyasha.**

Inuyasha was angry. Kagome had really done it this time. She had managed to sneak off and go through the well to her time without getting permission from him!

'Not that she usually gets your permission.' said the voice in his head. 'Usually, she just 'Sits' you a couple of times then gets away.'

"You, shut up!" he snapped at his inner voice. If only Kouga hadn't shown up when he had, she wouldn't have gotten away with it. Arguing with that wimpy wolf had distracted him and by the time Kouga had left, Kagome was gone. Well, he would show her! He was going to get her and he wouldn't let her go back the next morning like she had wanted to. That was what bugged him the most. He had already agreed to let her go the next day for this thing called 'Christmas'. She had said that it was a special holiday for family to get together and he hadn't had the heart to tell her no. Oh, he grumbled and groused, to keep up appearances, but Inuyasha would never keep her from her family. Not having one himself made the idea of keeping someone he cared about from their own family unbearable. But, now she had gone and snuck off the night before she was supposed to.

As he got to the well, he realized that she had about an hours head start on him. 'Great, just great!' he thought to himself. 'She may not be home. She probably went running out as soon as she got through the well because she knew that I would be right behind her. Well, that won't work. I'll just track her down and bring her back.' With that thought, he jumped into the well.

As he exited the well house, Inuyasha noticed that the house was dark. That surprised him. Someone was usually home. As he went through the back door, he noticed a note tacked to the door addressed to him. He took it down and opened it.

Dear Inuyasha,

I'm sorry that I snuck away like this but I wanted to go to the Christmas Eve party with my mom. When Kouga showed up, I managed to tell him to keep you occupied for a while so that I could get to the well without having to 'sit' you. _So thats why he kept pushing the argument! _It's the Christmas season and I didn't want punish you like that. I'll be back in the morning after I spend some time with my family so go back so that I don't have to 'sit' you in order for me to stay. Please.

Kagome

Inuyasha crumpled the note and dropped it on the ground. "She tricked me." he muttered in disbelief. "Fine. I'm taking her back as soon as I find her, even if she 'sits' me a hundred times!" He went inside the house to get his street clothes. Kagome insisted that he wear the clothes of her time when he went out, so that people wouldn't give him a hard time and so that he wouldn't get into trouble. He changed into his jeans and t-shirt, tied his hair back in a pony tail and put on his bandanna to cover his ears. Kagome had tried a ball cap, but Inuyasha didn't like the way it pushed his ears against his skull, so they went with a bandanna instead. He slung Tessaiga on his back and shrugged into a leather jacket, not because he was cold but to hide his sword. He left the shoes off. Even though there was snow on the ground, Inuyasha preferred to go bare foot. Finally ready, he went to the front of the house and caught Kagome's scent and began to track her. He hadn't gotten very far though, when it started to snow. 'Great.' he thought. 'Just what I need! This will knock Kagome's scent from the air and I'll never find her.' Sure enough, her scent began to get weaker until it faded to nothing. _sigh_ 'I guess that I'll just keep walking this way until I get her scent again or until I see her.'

After another hour of walking, Inuyasha was getting very irate. He hadn't been able to pick up her scent again and he was getting very frustrated. Finally, he stopped walking in front of what appeared to be a temple, of some kind. A tablue in front of this temple caught his attention. There was a kind of rude stable put up with statues around a hay manger with a baby in it. Above the stable was a statue of what looked lke some kind of bird youkai. After staring at it for a few minutes, he cocked his head to one side in puzzlement. "I don't get it." he said, aloud.

"What don't you get, young man?" came a voice from behind him.

Inuyasha jumped and spun in mid air, reaching over his shoulder for the hilt of Tessaiga, until he saw that the voice belonged to an elderly gentleman. "Damn it, old man!" he snapped. "You scared the crap out of me!" A part of him wondered how the old guy had managed to get that close without him hearing him. He decided that it was probably the bandanna over his ears and the muffling effect of the falling snow that had kept him from hearing the old timer.

The old man in question frowned at Inuyasha. "Watch your mouth." he said, reprovingly. "This is holy ground and you need to respect it."

Inuyasha started to make a smart retort, but something about this old man made him change his mind. 'I'll humor the old goat.' he thought. "Sorry, old man. But you startled me."

The old man grinned. "That's alright. I have that affect on people, sometimes. So, you want to know what is the reason for the display over there." He indicated the stable with a nod of his head.

"Yeah, I don't get it. Who's the kid? And why is a bird youkai hovering over him? Did he get eaten by one or something?"

"Bird youkai? Ooohhh! You mean the angel!"

"Ahn - gel? What's an ahn-gel?"

"Well, they are not a youkai. They are a messenger from God."

"God? Not gods?"

"Yes, God. Haven't you heard of God before?" The old man watched Inuyasha shake his head. "Hhhmmm. You might think of him as kami-sama."

"The ruler of all good spirits?"

"That's a pretty good discription. We'll go with that."

"Okay. Why would a kami be hovering over the kid?"

"The angel is there to announce His birth."

"Why? What's so special about this brat? Does he grow up to be this Santa person?"

The old man started to laugh. "Does He grow up to be Santa? Oh, man ... is that a good one! No! No, my friend. He is much more important than that. He is the son of God."

Inuyasha was startled. "The son of the kami-sama?!"

"Yes, young man. The son of God."

Inuyasha was thoughtful for a moment as he looked at the scene. "Why?"

"Why, what, my friend?"

"Why put up this scene? What was so special about this kid other than the fact that he is the son of kami-sama?"

"He is the Christ child. The one who was sent to earth to be the greatest gift of all. The gift of love and peace."

"So he was born to be a gift of love and peace, huh? Love and peace for who, old man. There is still a lot of hatred and war out there."

"The gift of love is the gift that God is giving to all men. He is saying that He loves all mankind. And the gift of peace is the peace of knowing that if you accept the gift of His love, your soul will never die and will be with Him in heaven."

Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow at the old man. "Uh, huh. Look, old man, it's been fun chatting with you but I have to find my friend, so I'll be going now." He turned to go and then stopped. "What happened to the kid? Did he succeed in being the gift of love?"

"Well, men celebrate His birth every year, so I would say that He succeeded. As for what happened to Him, that is a story for another time. Come see me at Easter, I'll meet you here and tell it to you."

"I might just do that, old man."

"Merry Christmas, Inuyasha and remember that the greatest gift of all is the gift of love."

"Okay, old man." Inuyasha started to walk away when he suddenly realized something. "I never told that old goat my name! How did he know who I was?" He spun back around to face the old man but saw nothing but falling snow. He stood for a moment watching the snow fall and then set out to go back to Kagome's house, thinking about the last thing the old man had said.

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Kagome was in a state of worry and anger, but mostly worry. When she had gotten back home with her family, she had found the crumpled note that she had left for Inuyasha and then had found his firerat hakama in her room. She would have gone out looking for him but her mother stopped her. "It's cold and snowing. Inuyasha is a big boy and can take care of himself. He will come back here eventually." That was kind of what she was afraid of. The last thing she wanted to deal with was an angry Inuyasha. But, as time passed, and Inuyasha didn't return, she began to get angry with him for coming to her time and trying to follow her. Then as more time passed, her anger became worry as she wondered if anything had happened to him because of the snow. She had paced the floor in her room until she had almost worn herself out and was sitting on her bed when she heard a noise at her window. She looked over to see Inuyasha coming through it. She jumped up and all but tackled the young hanyou. "Where have you been? I have been so worried about you."

Inuyasha looked at Kagome quietly and just said, "I've been out for a walk." Then he picked up his hakama and went to Kagome's bathroom, leaving a stunned girl behind.

"Out for a walk? Out for a walk!" She stormed to the bathroom door. "What do you mean, 'Out for a walk'? I've been worried sick about you and you come in saying that you have been 'out for a walk'."

Inuyasha opened the door and stepped into the room, dressed in his normal clothes. "Yeah, Kagome. I went out for a walk looking for you since you decided to come back here without telling me."

"I'm not going back, Inuyasha. I want to have Christmas morning with my family."

Inuyasha looked at her strangely for a moment. "Feh. Whatever, Kagome. I'll see you when you come back through the well." He went to the window to jump out.

"Inuyasha, wait." He stopped. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but aren't you going to try to make me come back with you?"

"Nah. I was going to but I met this old guy who told me about the greatest gift of all being love. Well, your family loves you and you love them so I thought that I would let you guys share in your gift. That's my gift to you. Merry Christmas, Kagome." Then he jumped out of the window.

Kagome stared after him for a moment as he walked through the snow to the well house when what he said hit her. "The greatest gift is love ... my gift to you. Inuyasha, wait!" she yelled at Inuyasha. She ran down the stairs and out into the snow. Inuyasha had stopped at the door to the well house.

"What do you want, Kagome?"

"Did you mean what I thought you meant?"

"Huh?"

"You said that someone told you that the greatest gift was love and that you were giving me a gift. Is the gift love?"

Inuyasha stared at his feet for a second and finally raised his head and looked at her. "Yeah, Kagome. It's love. Your family loves you and you deserve to be with people who love you like that."

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

"Yes, Kagome! I love you! Are you satisfied now?" he yelled at her.

"No, I'm not!" she yelled back. Then she jumped at him and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Now, I am." she said after she broke the kiss. She smiled at him. "Thank you for my gift, Inuyasha. I love you, too."

"Don't thank me, Kagome. Thank the old man who told me about the greatest gift being love and about some kid in a hay manger."

Kagome smiled as she realized what he was talking about and thanked the old man for telling Inuyasha the reason for the season.

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The old man smiled. "Your welcome, Kagome. But the telling of the story was my pleasure. After all, what father doesn't like to brag about the birth of His Son."

**A/N: Okay. I hope you guys liked this and I hope that none take offense at it. I am a very religous person and just felt that this would make a good story since no one seems willing to take it on. See ya' later, Fyrloche.**


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